These Broken Feels // book review by Hannah

 Okay, friends, here's how it goes. I'm sure you remember the last review that Hannah and I did on the Great Gatsby.... I am thrilled to say that we've done another book swap/review!! This time we changed up the genre, added a few gifs for happiness....we hope you like it!

After you've read Hannah's review below, pop over to her blog, The Daisy Tree, to read what I thought of it! (and when you're done, just stay a while and scroll through her old posts because it will make your life better.) ☺

First of all, before I saw anything about this book, can we all just take a moment to consider how stunning this book's cover is? WOWZERS. Not only is the cover stunning, but the book itself is pretty fabulous, too. Let's talk about it.

THE CONCEPT IS SO CLEVER.

I've never read a book quite like this before. It's like the Titanic story, but set in the future, and takes place in space, and involves survival and action and dead people's shoes. It's like the book I've always wanted to read! I think we can agree that it's the perfect set-up for a love story.

THE WRITING WAS SO PRETTY.
This book has two authors - and I was worried that that might make the writing disjointed. Wrong. The others worked perfectly together, it seems. The writing is lyrical and oh-so-pretty.

THE CHARACTERS WERE GUSH-WORTHY.

Honestly, they totally annoyed me at first. But I grew to like them a lot, although they still had their annoying moments. But I grew to genuinely care about what happened to them. Also, they amused me. Snarky little people. And, I totally ship them. (lol...ship. brilliant pun)

IT WAS SO FAST-PACED AND INTENSE AND SCARY.

I was legit freaked out at times. In a good way. I had no idea what was going to happen next, and there was  just so many feels involved. It was thrilling, I tell you.

It's not perfect, some things annoyed me, and it's not an all-time favorite. But I thoroughly enjoyed this emotional roller-coaster of a book, and I'm definitely glad I read it.

Q&A Time!

- What would you rate this book out of 5? 

I'd give it a four stars. Maybe that's slightly generous...but seriously, the cover alone deserves a star. (star!? another pun!!)

- What is one thing you would change about it? 

Some aspects of the romance totally bugged me! And unfortunately this book isn't exactly PG in the romance department. It might not bother some readers, but the lovey-dovey-ness was too much for me!

- Are you interested continuing the series/reading more books from the author(s)? 

 I'd definitely be interested in reading the second one some time.

-Who did you like better? Lilac or Tarver? (or why you loved them both equally and forever)
Definitely Lilac, for me. She was spunky and intelligent and sarcastic.Tarver was a heartthrob though.


 -Favorite line or quote? 
  This one gave me all the feels:

“It’s my landmark, now. I’ll always know how far I am from this spot. From her.”

-Without spoiling, were you satisfied with the ending of the book?
Yes, I am.  

-Do purple flowers and green dresses give you feelz now?
TOTES YES :'(  

- Do you think this book would make a good movie?
Yes! It would be a visually gorgeous film! Unknown planets! Fancy space ships! Cute soldiers!

^ That was my reading experience

I recommend it, but do be aware (especially younger readers) that some parts were a bit dodgy. If you've read this book, what do YOU think? Do you love the cover? Do you want to marry a boy named Tarver now? Let me know, folks.

Hannah is a seventeen-year-old girl from Ireland. She has a family that consists of six people and two cats. She really, really likes to read books, and she really, really likes to talk about them. She also enjoys photography, blogging, baking, and fangirling over BBC shows. She has a lot of fun talking about herself in third-person, and she wishes she could do it more often. 

first snow

Friday, November 14, 2014. 5th period.

Monday, November 17, 2014. 5th period.

I love winter, and I couldn't believe it when it started to snow in earnest this weekend. I feel like Elsa from Frozen, because



Unfortunately, everyone at school hates the snow and grumbles and was annoyed when the office played Jingle Bells over the PA system on Friday, while I was thrilled and humming and just ecstatic.
(also, me being Elsa is kiinnd of a lie, because I actually do get cold and actually it does bother me. But I just love snow so it's okay.)

How do you feel about snow/winter in general?

xx
Olivia

pad thai tuesday

So lately I've fallen in love with Asian food. I crave vermicelli and bean sprouts and pad thai and spring rolls absolutely constantly all the freakin' time. Brooke and I went out for lunch to an awesome Asian place last week and it was amazing, but I came home and was like, I need more.
So I went to Pinterest and found me a pad thai recipe that is SUPER easy and ridiculously yummy. And not even that expensive! You can buy all the ingredients at your regular grocery store. And it's all homemade and healthy and not like, what is this word in the ingredients list because it looks like someone went adgoiahgufufoiahg on their keyboard for a second there.

YOU MUST TRY IT.

*original recipe here*

Easy Pad Thai - Olivia's adaptation

Serves 4
8 ounces dried, wide and flat rice noodles
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, plus wedges for serving
3 tablespoons soy sauce 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3 scallions (green onions), white and green parts, separated and thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup grated carrot
1 small chicken breast (or whatever tickles your fancy)
3 large eggs, light beaten
1/4 cup chopped roasted, salted peanuts

1. Soak noodles according to package instructions. Drain.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, lime juice, soy sauce, and Sriracha.
3. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.
4. Add scallion whites and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Add eggs and cook, scraping skillet with spatula until eggs are almost set (about 1-2 minutes). Transfer eggs to a plate.
5. Add noodles, scallion greens, grated carrot, chicken, and sauce to skillet. Cook, tossing constantly, until noodles are coated. Add egg mixture and toss to coat, breaking eggs up gently.
6. Serve noodles with lime wedges, topped with peanuts.

just a note: I made this recipe for the first time yesterday, without the grated carrot. I've eaten it in pad thai before and really liked it, and will be adding it the next time I use this recipe.

I only took one (rather horrible) picture of my finished product, but mine ended up looking almost exactly like the original version, so go look at her beautiful pictures if you're one of those people who needs a visual of the recipe at 30-second intervals. Because I swear the original blogger took that many pictures. (and they're all gorgeous. Seriously go look.)

But here's what I ended up with:

shoutout to hastily-taken phone pix when you're starving hungry and just want to eat

and it was goooooood.

Have you ever tried pad thai? Love or loathe?

xx
Olivia

P.S. Sorry if this post was all over the place and weird. It's been a weird day.

things that make me happy // 287- 302

287. rainy afternoons
288. face-to-face skype chats with friends far away
289. cranberry-coloured leg warmers
290. new shoes (heels! my first pair of heels!)
291. ideas for new post collabs. (remember this?) 
292. asian food for lunch 
293. thrift stores and finding comfy clothes in the men's section
294. writing more refrigerator poetry at Brooke's condo. I definitely need to get me some word magnets.
295. leftover halloween chocolate
296. peppermint tea. literally the best thing ever
297. rolo hot chocolate (sensing a theme here?)
298. this song that just makes me happy every time I hear it. 
299. my bed because wow sometimes I'm like, forget the world I just need blankets
300. the fact that Christmas break is a little under 7 weeks away
301. random texts about attractive garbage collectors from one of my besties
302. looking back at old posts and thinking, some of those were pretty cool!

what makes you happy? excited for November, or wishing it was still summer? I'm caught in between...

xx
Olivia

the bookshelf challenge

well hello friends!! I was visiting Hannah's blog the other day and noticed two super-duper exciting things.

1. SHE VLOGGED. it is literally the most exciting thing to happen to me all week. except for today, because some random little girl in the park gave me a wilted dandylion and realistically THAT was the most exciting thing to happen, but the vlog is close. so go watch that.
2. (I was so excited about the afore-mentioned dandylions that I totally forgot what I was going to say and it's literally taken me five minutes to remember.)
2! She tagged me to complete the bookshelf challenge! So before you read my post please DROP EVERYTHING and go visit the daisy tree, watch the vlog and be happy.


I am not going to do a vlog today, mostly because after I watched Hannah's I realized that we're kind of actually twins, and it would be almost exactly the same as hers and that's boring. So at some point I'll be brave and put my face on the internet (my heart's already here, so I don't know why I'm so skittish) but today is not that day! I'll keep you posted.

Without further ado...I give you the bookshelf challenge.

1) Is there a book that you really want to read but haven’t because you know that it’ll make you cry?
I can't think of a specific one at the moment. Sadness doesn't really put me off reading books...I like to feel the feelz. Howeverrrrrrrrr I have only read The Book Thief (Zuzak) once because I don't want to experience the trauma again, even though it was an amazing book.
 
2) Pick one book that helped introduce you to a new genre.
I read basically every genre always, anyway, but... I would say the Hunger Games (Collins) and Divergent (Roth) helped me to appreciate dystopia more, since it's not a genre I normally like and I *loved* those books.
 
3) Find a book that you want to reread.
EVERY BOOK EVER. But realistically, The Fault in Our Stars (Green.) My heart, wow. ow. Also, I've been in a nostalgic childhood-book mood and I have a whole stack of old favourites that I'm going to go through. 
 
4) Is there a book series you read but wish that you hadn't?
I honestly don't think so. There are books that I didn't necessarily like, but I can't think of a time where I read a specific book and was like, "if I had a re-do I wouldn't have read that." Usually I just like to be able to say "oh, I've read that," even if I didn't like it.
 
5) If your house were burning down and all of your family and pets were safe, which book would you go back inside to save?
I know this is kind of cheating, but I would save my journals. I'm a huge library person and while I do own a lot of books, I don't have deep emotional attachments to the physical book itself. I'm attached to the story, and all of my books are replaceable. On the other hand, I have almost ten journals that date back to roughly 2003. Those are priceless.
 
6) Is there one book on your bookshelf that brings back fond memories?
 Most of them do. Dancing Through the Snow (Little) and the Chronicles of Narnia* (Lewis) are two of my absolute childhood and current favourites. major blast from the past.
 
7) Find a book that has inspired you the most.
Inspired me as a writer or as a person? As a writer, most books inspire me in some way. Reading The Fault in Our Stars really inspired me to create real, quirky characters. Hazel was amazing; I absolutely loved reading from her perspective. As a person, I would have to say CoN* has probably inspired me the most. Whenever I'm feeling low I know I can crack the cover and feel better instantly. When I'm feeling spiritually dry, I'll go to the Bible first, obviously, but after that I grab my beat-up Narnia book.
 
8) Do you have any autographed books?
Nope!

 
9) Find the book that you have owned the longest.
A 7-in-1 edition of the Chronicles of Narnia that I've had since I was six. (are you seeing a theme??) It is totally battered and wrecked and I love it dearly. Actually, this is the book I'd probably rescue from a fire, if my journals don't count.
 
10) Is there a book by an author that you never imagined you would read or enjoy?
Aghhhhhh I don't remember!! There are too many books! I don't think so. Usually I just wouldn't read it...or I probably read it and didn't like it. I'm usually right with my gut feelings about books. (although I tend to be too optimistic and therefore often disappointed.)

thanks for nominating me, Hannah! That was fun! Danielle, I've tagged you to do these questions, if you're interested!! 
have a lovely first week of November, everyone!! what are some of your favourite books?

xx
Olivia